Poetry Terms
Name:
Directions: find an example from a song, rap, or poem for each of the poetry terms.
Term
Definition
Alliteration
The repetition of consonant sounds
Blank verse
Poetry written in unrhymed iambic
pentameter lines
Connotation
The set of ideas associated with it
in addition to its explicit meaning
Couplet
A pair of rhyming lines, usually the
same length and meter
Denotation
A word’s dictionary meaning,
independent of other associations
that the word may have
Word choice, including vocabulary
used, the appropriateness of the
words, and the vividness of the
language
Occurs when the rhyming words
come at the ends of lines
Diction
End rhyme
Figurative language
Free verse
Iambic pentameter
Writing or speech not meant to be
interpreted literally; it is often used
to create vivid impressions by
setting up comparisons between
unlike things
Poetry not written in a regular
rhythmical pattern or meter. It
seeks to capture the rhythms of
speech.
A common meter in poetry
consisting of an unrhymed line
with five feet or accents, each foot
containing an unaccented syllable
and an accented syllable
Iamb
A foot with one stressed syllable
followed by a stressed syllable
Pentameter
Internal rhyme
Verse written in five-foot lines
Occurs when the rhyming words
appear in the same line
Imagery
The descriptive or figurative
language used in literature to
create word pictures for the reader;
these pictures, or images, are
created by details of sight, sound,
taste, touch, smell, or movement
Example
Metaphor
Meter
Mood
Narrative poem
A figure of speech in which one
thing is spoken of as though it was
something else. Unlike a simile,
which compares two things using
like or as, a metaphor implies a
comparison between them.
A poem’s rhythmical pattern. This
pattern is determined by the
number and types of stresses, or
beats, in each line. To describe the
meter of a poem, you must scan its
lines. This act of scanning, or
scansion, involves marking the
stressed and unstressed syllables.
The feeling create in the reader by
a literary work or passage. The
mood is often suggested by
descriptive details.
One that tells a story
Onomatopoeia
The use of words that imitate
sounds
Prose poem
A composition written as prose but
having the concentrated, rhythmic,
figurative language characteristic
of poetry
The repetition of sounds at the
ends of words
Rhyme
Rhyme scheme
Shakespearean/English Sonnet
Simile
Sonnet
Stanza
Tone
A regular pattern of rhyming words
in a poem. The rhyme scheme of a
poem is idicated by using different
letters of the alphabet for each new
rhyme. (such as abab or aabb)
Consists of three quatrains (fourlined stanzas) and a couplet (two
lines), usually rhyming abab cdcd
efef gg
A figure of speech in which like or
as is used to make a composition
between two basically unlike things
A fourteen-line lyric poem, usually
written in rhymed iambic
pentameter
A formal division of lines in a poem,
considered as a unit (often
separated by spaces between each
one, but not always)
The writer’s attitude toward his or
her audience and subject